On November 14, IndustriAll Europe, manufacturing union, signed its first European agreement with a German company, namely ThyssenKrupp Elevator. This agreement confirms the key role played by employees and their representatives in improving occupational health and safety, collecting ideas from the sites, assessing them and monitoring them within the framework of a specific procedure....

On July 10, Valeo, the car part manufacturer, and its European Works Council signed a European agreement on corporate social responsibility. This agreement covers a wide range of subjects, such as relations with employees, the protection of the environment, or even relations with third parties. It applies to 14 European countries, and the group wishes to gradually extend it to all of its undertakings worldwide. (Ref. 120476)

This agreement “sets out the rules and processes to be observed by BNP Paribas Group companies in Europe with regard to:

GDF SUEZ and the EPSU (public service) and IndustriALL European trade union (which is signing its first transnational agreement here) signed, on June 5, a European agreement on professional equality between women and men. The agreement defines figured objectives and contains indicators for follow-up on the themes addressed, namely recruitment, parity in career development, pay equality, training or even work-life balance. Unions also commit to equality in the employee representation structures within the company....

Transnationality.  The agreement signed on December 16 by Enel’s management, the EWC and the EPSU and EMCEF union organizations contains the definition given in Directive 2009/38 which provides that the EWC is competent for matters which concern the entire group or at least two undertakings situated in two different Member States.  However, it adds a paragraph that reads, “Account shall also be taken of the matters which are particularly relevant for European workers in terms of their potential impact or which entail the transfer of activities between Member States (preamble, point 16 of Directive 20089/38/EC), with specific reference...

New sites included.  On March 28, 2007, Total and the EMCEF (mining, chemistry and energy), FECCIA (managers in the chemical industry) and FECER (managers in energy and research) European trade union federations signed an agreement defining the accompanying measures the group offers to SMEs created or growing close to its key European establishments (sharing of technological resources and skills, support for exports and international development, financing to create, acquire or expand businesses, see our dispatch...

International outstations in European airports are subject to restructurings because of technological change and the search for synergies between KLM and Air France.  To manage these restructurings, likely to have an impact on employment, the EWC and Air France KLM management – represented by the Chairman of the EWC – signed, on November 29, 2011, a framework agreement almost identical to that signed in May 2010 on the management of restructurings for sales agencies in airports (ATOs, see our dispatch No. ...

Senior Managers (L4) working in businesses where EADS holds over 50% of the capital in the countries where the country is primarily present (Germany, UK, Spain, France) are going to be subject to the same regulations as regards the structures of variable remuneration and the criteria taken into consideration to define it.  This new negotiation was the application of the social bargaining procedures at European level, introduced in 2010 via an agreement (see our dispatch No.  110677).